This was a tough workout. Did a fair bit of walking on Saturday (maybe 2.5-3 hours worth?) and then a longer dog walk (1.5 hours?) Sunday morning ahead of this workout, so my legs had a little fatigue in them already. Hadn’t slept brilliantly the past couple of nights either which probably contributed. It’s super muggy here at the moment as well, and I was sweating buckets throughout this session…
With that said, deadlifts felt heavy but bar speed was fine. Grip was becoming a slight factor on the last couple of sets due to the aforementioned sweat. (Not sure I’ve ever mentioned it in this log before, but I don’t use chalk)
Front squats also felt challenging at the start, but once again got into the groove by about 3rd set, and then things moved OK until the end. There were a few tricky reps in there, but on the whole they felt good and I didn’t have to grind any out (I shouldn’t have to either at this point in the program).
By the end I was completely wiped though - didn’t do any additional assistance work and just called it there instead.
I have had a thought about the assistance work - I naturally set this up as an upper/lower type program, as that’s what I’ve been mostly doing this year, but I wrote everything out in a spreadsheet earlier and thought about moving around the categories (push/pull/abs+single-leg per Wendler) to see how the volume works out.
I’m thinking that it might actually be better to mix things up (e.g. push/pull assistance on lower days, and pull/abs+single-leg on upper days), as the volume is virtually the same, it’s more in keeping with how the program is written, and it might help avoid running myself into the ground by heaping all the volume into fewer body parts in a given session (vs spreading the load all over).
Honestly don’t know why I’m bothering to log all this considering there’s zero continuity at the moment. This was an attempt at John Rusin’s FHT program (push day), but the incline stuff really aggravated my right shoulder and I had to cut it short (the above is barely half of the full session).
I don’t think it’ll be a shock to anyone following to say that I’m in a rut at the moment - fat loss isn’t really moving, energy is down, can’t stick to a program, feel like I’m just going backwards, and I keep hurting myself (knees, back, shoulders etc.).
Workout went pretty well overall. Took a bit of figuring out to get the band working with the rings for the lying leg curls, but managed to hook something up in the end which seemed to work OK.
Box squats were done with a slow descent and then trying to pop right back up again when I touched the bench (rather than pausing/taking tension off of legs).
Overhead rope cable triceps exts - 15, 14, 11 @ 15 + 15 banded triceps pushdowns after last set
(1m rest)
Weighed in @ 13st 4.6lbs on this morning. Little surprised as I’d had a barbeque the day before and felt like I’d eaten a fair amount of rubbish.
Just doing a bit of whatever here. No real plan coming into this, and just hit things that I wanted to. TGUs were much harder than I remember them being, albeit it is made more awkward by having slightly less floor space than you really need to do them. No set rest times between sets, and just went until I felt like I’d had enough. Hit the one-arm swings between a couple of these sets and felt like the weight being swung on one arm just made my elbows feel a bit off, so didn’t do much more on these.
Still been super hot here recently which has put me off working out a bit (on top of general workout ennui). Did this workout in the morning to try to avoid the worst of it.
Not done Jefferson deadlifts before so this was interesting - quite tricky to get into the groove and it definitely felt better when I was facing left rather than right, but that may just be because I was doing the set first each time and then switching? 100 was challenging, but I wasn’t trying to find a max here or anything, just play around with it.
Right shoulder is still giving me general issues, but ring pushups weren’t too bad.
Everything else was fine and finished with a good arm pump after the drop sets.
Been away for a while, hence the gap in workouts. Bench was harder than expected, and really gave right shoulder some issues - hoped this might have healed up a bit with during the time off, but doesn’t seem to have done a lot.
I think I’m at the point where bench always seems to cause more issues than it solves, so I think I’m just going to dump it altogether for a while and see what happens. I know others on here have done so and haven’t found any ill-effects. I’ll probably also favour pushups and dips as assistance exercises over this period (as long as they don’t bother the shoulder either), rather than DB bench variations etc.
Other exercises were fine, but generally tiring. I only got back home on this morning, so I expect there was some tiredness playing a part in this.
Following on from last session I decided to test out OHP to see how I could handle that. Interestingly the right shoulder was still giving me some bother on the earlier sets, but once the weight got a bit heavier it seemed to pass - not sure if that’s because it actually stopped hurting, down to a change in positioning, or just that it stopped signalling.
This was a TM test, so I stopped at the point the bar speed slowed right down. Disappointed to only get 4 @ 45, which gives an 85% TM of 42.5, but it’s probably for the best to go a bit lighter to help the shoulder. On top of that I’ll be doing double-OHP for the time being as I’ve dropped bench, using Z-press on the second day - guesstimated a TM of 40 for the that one.
Similarly tested out front squats as back squats were always tricky on my shoulder to get into position with. Last couple of reps @ 60 were a bit slow so I called it there - think I’m massively out of practice with these. Will use that for my TM going forwards though.
Weighed in here @ 13st 9lbs, and with a 35 inch waist. Not sure how I added 4.8lbs over a few days, but I’ll reserve judgement until the end of this week once I’m back into a normal eating and training routine.
Pics above don’t look significantly different from the last ones I took, but then I have been spinning my wheels for the past 4 months or so, so that checks out…
Looking at a route mapper I covered c.2.4m/3.8km in total
Trying something a bit different here with earlier wake up time to get in a short conditioning/workout each day in a bid to improve overall fitness levels, get myself more active overall, and generally break out of the rut I’ve been in.
Run was OK - right knee hurt a fair bit on the first couple of runs, but from the third interval onwards I was running with more forward lean, striking the ground with my feet underneath me rather than out in front, and that was a lot better. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to get back into a proper running groove.
Just to note I still did the routine dog walk (c.1hr today) in the morning, after having breakfast etc. I’m still doing these walks at least 4-5 times a week, usually for around 45m each, dependent on how often I have to go into the office.
Ring rows were the big sticking point here - had to break up the sets to get through 20 each round (last round was something like 8-2-2-2-2-2-1-1). Goblet squats were fine, just had to pause for a second at the top of a couple of reps to get through them. Pushdowns were pretty easy, and swings were fine as well although they left my heart rate jacked.
I did pushup variations in the warmup circuit but they were giving me shoulder pain again on the right side, hence going with banded pushdowns for the main work instead. Really annoying. Need to keep trying different movements to see what I can do vs what hurts.
Went out a bit harder than last time, and covered about 50-100m extra which all came from the first half. Realised I was pushing too hard and actually flagging a bit at the end of 4th interval so I calmed it down a bit for the way back.
Otherwise everything was pretty good - right hip flexor and left calf were both a bit tight/sore generally, but not a major issue. Right knee was a tad sore after the run, but it didn’t last too long and it didn’t throw up anything more than minor discomfort during the run itself, and none of the actual pain that I had last time out, so looks like I’m got my running form right from the off.
This was much more challenging than I had expected - RDLs were fine, and rows were OK but then hang power cleans were a real struggle predominantly because my grip was fatiguing and the bar was getting some sweat on it so it was really hard to hold onto. Front squats surprisingly ended up being a nice breather of sorts. DB OHPs felt OK on the right shoulder so chucked those onto the end as well for some pushing work.
Rest started out at 90s after the first round, but I was struggling so much I pushed it out by 30s each round after that (2m, then 2.5m).
Sunday was spent doing nothing more than a bit of walking. Weighed in @ 13st 6.8lbs.
Was sweating buckets by the end of this! I had intended to only do three rounds, but I got to the end and was doing fairly well for time and felt like I had more in me, so I quickly put everything back in place and went for one more round. The ab work at the end was the toughest element, and I’m hoping it won’t come back to bite me in tomorrow’s run.
I had also intended to do KB push press for the third part, but when I did a couple of practice reps before starting my right shoulder really didn’t like catching it/coming back to the deep rack position, so I switched out for the bumper plate clean and presses. Probably slightly less emphasis on shoulders and triceps but fairly fun to do.
I did notice however I was getting a bit of knee aggravation because I was letting the plate come back to the ground a little out in front of me and was then pushing through the toes to get it back up. Tried to keep it closer after noticing that and get hips a bit lower at the start of each rep to drive through the whole foot instead and that seemed better.
Run was fine - first interval was a bit off, but got into the groove from second interval onwards. Felt like I was going a bit slower than normal at the start so I tried speeding up a bit, and then found I’d got further than normal by the halfway stage. Bit of wind resistance after the turn.
I’ve repeated the first two runs from the C45K program just as a way to help get me up to speed with these early morning sessions. Also means the ‘weeks’ per the program will line up with actual calendar weeks, though I can’t decide if that actually makes any difference to my scheduling/recovery demands.
Went a little heavier but lower rep on the complex this time. Hang cleans were still the hardest part, which is mainly down to the grip, having already gone through the RDLs and rows. Didn’t adjust my hand positioning at all between movements though which I think helped (last time I was shifting my grip out a bit for the rows and then back in again for the hang cleans).
Front squats were harder this time around though, but I managed to stick to a 90s rest period between each round which was good.
Right knee feeling a little buggy this morning, but no major issues. Covered similar distance to before, but must have got out a little earlier than previous sessions as I beat the train on the way back (my route crosses a train track and I usually see one pass by up ahead on my back).
Updated the name of my log to reflect the current direction I’m moving in - namely getting my overall fitness/work capacity up to scratch after neglecting it for so long.
Felt like knees and hips were a bit achey coming into this so I decided to go easy on the lower body volume. Tested out pushups and found I could handle them OK if I have my hands should-width and keep the elbows tucked right in, essentially keeping the focus on the triceps (but away from shoulder).
Weighed in on Sunday morning @ 13st 10lbs - heavier than I’d like, but I did eat a load of cake batter and chocolate icing etc. Saturday evening (we did some baking ahead of seeing family on Sunday).
Testing out where my strength is at on these morning sessions, now that I’m into the swing of things, with the aim to lead into a ‘proper’ program next week (which I’m going to base on 5/3/1 Krypteia).
Front squats felt decent. 60 actually moved a bit better than when I did them last time, a few weeks (on a normal afternoon session). 65 was OK but the last rep slowed down so I think I’ll stick at 60 for my starting TM.
Tried out an E2MOM timing to keep me moving but I think this was a tad too difficult for my current conditioning level. I’ll stick to it for the rest of this week to see how it goes on the other movements, but I’m thinking I might go for an E2.5MOM interval instead when I start the program proper, with the aim to bring it down in one or two jumps to E2MOM. I should note this is purely to make sure I can get through a full session in the time I have, rather than to comply with any other target/metric.
Also, not dropped the running, just switched the days around as longer-term I’m hoping the conditioning days will aid in recovery, so I think having those follow the lifting days makes more sense. Plus I’m more likely to be busy/away for the Saturday session and can slot the run in wherever, whereas the lifting needs to be done where I have my gym.
